Bare bottom tanks and filtration

[Ihsnshaik]

It all depends on what application your going for. For my fry tanks I use bare bottom because I do water changes few times a week. For my 200 gallon I have sand and love it.

It's actually a lot more work for bare bottom because if your like me you need everything clean asap. I hate seeing poop.

What I noticed is when I did water changes a few times a week vs once a week my fish grew and benefited from the water changes. This is fry only I can't be dumping 100 gallons every other day in my 200 gallon tank lol.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

Well I run bare bottom tanks All my fish are well over 12" some pushing 30". I run Koralia circulating pumps and high turnover rate for my filtration. My tanks are on auto water changers and I never siphon anything. The only thing I do every few months is wipe the bottom
Of the tank with a squeegee And I don't like the comment that bare bottoms are ugly as sin

to each their own. I hate barebottom tanks, you like them. I prefer a natural looking scape in all my tanks. I like it to look at least similar to the areas my fish come from. If someone's main focus is to say "hey look at my amazing fish" then barebottom tanks work.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

we going to have to agree to disagree on the bio filtration thing, may work for little fish in a large tank but not with larger fish, I agree, the aquascape contributes to bio filtration, but you still need a good bio filtration system, canisters/sumps fit this bill well.

of course you need to supplement your bio filter in any tank, scaped or not. But if I were to guess since more areas of the tank has colonize-able surface, there would be not only a greater bacteria load in your sump/can/hob or whatever filter system you are using, there would also be a good population of bacteria in the main tank itself.

 

[tiger15]

Asian fish keepers prefer BB tank as the focus is the pet fish. If you are showing off a $$$ red arros, you don't need any aquascape which is a distraction. Monster cichlid or FH will rearrange the aquascape, so it's better to do without it. Some discus keepers swear that the only way to keep healthy discus is a BB tank. BB or substrate is a matter of taste, and both can be aesthetic.

A BB tank loaded with big fish will need external biomedia from sump or canisters. HOBs may not provide sufficient biomedia for a loaded BB tank. But if the tank is aquascaped, a strong circulation flow from HOBs and/or circulation pumps over the substrate and rockscape will be more than enough. However, with marketing influence, many passionate fish keepers overkill their set up with biological filters.